Long time no see, Cowboy
by The Huntress1
Summary: UPDATED: Takes place after The Real Folk Blues pt.2 Spike has amnesia after falling unconscious and being admitted to the hospital. Now he doesn't remember Faye or anything.
1. Default Chapter

_**Disclaimer: Cowboy Bebop belongs to __Sunrise__.  "In a sentimental mood" is the jazz song playing in the background of the first scene.  It is performed by Duke Ellington and John Coltrane.  Characters and events depicted throughout this story are purely the children of the author's imagination.  No similarity to any real life person or event is intended, and is completely coincidental.**_

A/N: This is my first Cowboy Bebop fan fic so be gentle.  It takes place after "The Real Folk Blues pt. 2.  That said, let's rock and roll!

***

Faye laid her head back over the arm of the couch and stared at the ceiling, her face a picture of boredom.  Slowly she brought the cigarette to her lips and drew the smoke into her lungs, smiling at the tiny burning sensation it brought to the back of her throat.

Notes of jazz hung lazily in the air, mingling with the smoke her cigarette was producing.  Faye raised a hand from its position on her stomach and mimicked a conductor's movements to the tune of the music.

It had been only an hour since Spike had left.  An hour since she'd fired five bullets into the Bebop's ceiling with grief.  An hour since she'd cried for him.  And all he'd done is turn his back on her and walk away; as if the very act of her shedding tears wasn't as monumental as it had been.

Her mind turned the memory over and over again.  She could picture his face as it hovered, barely inches away, in front of her's.  She could recall her lips trembling as she'd longed to attach them to his mouth and pull him to her, refusing to let go until he'd called off his stupid decision.  The one that by now had more than likely cost him his life.

Taking a deep breath she turned on her stomach.  The stupid lunkhead.  Went and got himself killed for nothing.  Absolutely nothing!  Sure wasn't for his own sake.  That would be ridiculous!  It went against the very grain of human instinct.  The antelope doesn't run toward the lion.  But then again, Spike had always had it backward hadn't he?

Faye buried her face in the couch's cushions.  It hadn't been for Julia either, that much was true.  Julia was dead.  Stiff as a board.  Sleeping the big sleep.  Basically any other catchy little saying one could come up with would still amount to the same thing:  Death.

Faye bit her lip and willed the tears not to resurface.  She couldn't stand the thought that Spike had decided that dying with Julia was better than living with her.  Of course that hadn't been the reason he gave her, but then again, there had never been an exact reason as far as she knew.  They could have escaped the both of them.  She from her debts, and he from his syndicate trappings.  It would have worked out somehow.

She pictured herself—only half involuntary, pregnant with Spike's child.  They were in a beautiful old house, somewhere in Asia, sitting on the stairs that led to the indoor courtyard.  The courtyard itself was covered with two-hundred years worth of ivy, and possessed a cracked fountain that served as a catch for rain water.  Up above them, the stairs turned into a balcony that led to the upstairs rooms.  And in the ceiling was a circular skylight, the glass dirty and faded, even missing in some places.  Spike was sitting on the ninth step up with Faye between his legs, his hands gently massaging the swollen globe that was her belly.  Faye was staring up through the skylight, searching for something.  Searching for what exactly?  All she needed was right there around her.

"Coming through!" came the shouts of Jet Black, suddenly jarring Faye from her musings.  "Make way, we need that couch!"

Faye scrambled off the couch, more curious than annoyed, as the Black Dog barked his orders, dragging a half-conscious Spike behind him.

Had Jet gone after Spike?  When had that happened?

Faye found herself moving without thought, rushing for the first aid, and then assisting Jet.  She watched without reaction as Spike's lesser wounds were cleaned, and then his gunshot wound attended to.  As his head fell to the side, his eyes staring lifelessly forward.  Was he dying?  Or…  Was he already dead?

Faye felt herself whimper helplessly as his skin paled.  Scooting back against the chair to her left, she watched as his eyelids closed.  As Jet kept working, seemingly oblivious to what was taking place within his young friend's body.  Her hand shot out towards him, perhaps to get a lasting touch of him before his essence floated away.  She clamped down on his yellow dress shirt, bloodied and dirty from his rendezvous with the grim reaper, and buried her face in his shoulder.  Before she could stop herself, she was crying again.  Sobbing into him, maybe hoping that her tears of life could bring him back.

She could feel Jet's awed stare as it penetrated her back, but wasn't self-conscious enough to let him stop her.  "Faye." She heard him say.

"Faye.  He'll be…  You don't have to cry." Jet said trying to comfort her.

Faye ignored his words until finally she stopped.  She raised her head to find that Jet had gone somewhere.  She thought it wrong of him but didn't have the strength to get angry.  Instead she slowly pulled Spike's dress shirt off of his still body and hugged it to her, the wetness from her tears moistening her own top.  "Come on Cowboy, don't leave me.  Don't leave me twice." she begged him quietly.

"I won't leave you." She head him answer weakly.

Faye's head snapped up, his eyes were open, the pain of his wounds showing immediately.

"Spike?" she whispered disbelievingly.

"I'm here Faye.  I was—never going to leave you."

Faye smiled weakly and ran her fingers along the edge of his cheek.  "Long time no see Cowboy."

Spike smiled, "Irrational shrew woman."

"Lunkhead idiot." Faye returned before pressing her lips to his.

"The pain of love is the pain of being alive. It is a perpetual wound."

--Maureen Duffy


	2. Amnesia

_**Disclaimer: Cowboy Bebop belongs to __Sunrise__. Characters and events depicted throughout this story are purely the children of the author's imagination. No similarity to any real life person or event is intended, and is completely coincidental.**_

A/N: This is my first Cowboy Bebop fan fic so be gentle. It takes place after "The Real Folk Blues pt. 2. That said, let's rock and roll!  Also kudos to DC Luder for the idea on how to write this fan fic, the concept is the same as a story of his entitled _Time will Tell._

**

Spike took a deep breath and held it, letting it completely fill his lungs before exhaling outward.  Staying at the hospital was boring.

Somehow he'd woken up here, with a head full of wool, and barely a recollection of who he was.  They'd told him that his name was Spike Spiegel and that he'd been brought in with gunshot wounds, but that was it.  He did see a purple haired woman sometimes in his dreams at night though.

So here he laid, his torso covered in gauze and tape.  He reached up, and winced as he touched the tender spot on the side of his head where the last bullet had gone in, this was also bandaged.  It hadn't gone far, and had only affected his memory to some extent.  He had trouble recalling the names of objects, people, and places sometimes.  

He knew he'd had the same nurse for the entire time he'd been there, but couldn't recall her name anytime he saw her.  He did remember that her hair was gray, and that she was kind of short, and that she liked to tell him stories.  Despite the drawbacks, she was always patient with him, and talked to him about anything he liked, whether it was how much he liked sweet potatoes or about the frayed threads in his blanket, or even about her grandchildren.  He liked that she was so nice to him, even though she didn't know him from anybody else in the hospital.

After a few days, the purple haired girl from his dreams came to visit him.  She brought with her a book, and a smile.  And he knew that somehow that was all he needed.

He watched as she sat by the bed and smiled her smile at him, her eyes bright with the sunlight that shone through the window onto her face.

Spike smiled back.

"Hey lunkhead." She said finally, tilting her head a bit to get a better look at him.

"Hi…" he said tentatively.

"So how soon 'til your ready to blow this popsicle stand huh?"

Spike shrugged.  "I-I don't know."

She frowned slightly, "That's strange.  You usually come back with some smart ass comment, or something.  And you don't stutter.  What's this hospital stay been doing to you?"

She reached out and knocked on his head gently.

Spike let out a small cry of pain before shying away from her.  "Stop." He pleaded in a small voice.

"Wha..?  Stop?  What are you doing?  You've never sounded like that before."

"Befo…  When?  Who you?"

The purple haired woman's face twisted up, "What do you mean who am I?!"

Spike grabbed his blanket and pulled it over his head.

She was just about to continue her rant when Spike's nurse grabbed her by the arm and put a finger to her lips.  "Not so loud.  He's had memory damage; he doesn't know who you are.  He can't even remember who I am half the time."

She stared at the nurse, her face expressionless.  "You mean he…  He doesn't remember who he was before he came here?"

She turned to face Spike's hidden form, "You don't remember 'us'?  What we had together?"

Spike slowly pulled the covers down and stared at her, "You from dream.  Purple.  Smile."

He watched as her face melted in a mixture of mirth, sadness, and pain; then as she began to cry.  "He doesn't know me." She said softly.

"Well…" The nurse began gently, "You could always introduce yourself to him.  Sometimes the memories come back."

Faye shook her head disbelievingly.  

"Go on.  Just look at the bright side, if there was anything that went wrong between you two in the past, he doesn't remember now.  You can start anew."

Faye wiped her face with the back of her hands and nodded to the nurse before approaching Spike's bedside.

"Hi Spike.  I'm Faye.  I was…  A friend."

Spike smiled weakly, "Hi Faye."

"Now take in mind, he might not remember you the next time you visit.  But have patience, it'll stick eventually." The nurse said from behind.

Faye turned and gave her a smile before refocusing her attention to Spike.  "So what do you do around here for fun?"

Spike pointed at the television mounted in the corner.  On the screen was some children's show.  The animated pictures were at the moment showcasing the letter "H".

She looked back to Spike as he smiled.  "Tee-Vee." 

Faye raised her eyebrows and shrugged in defeat.  "Okay.  T.V. it is then."

He looked at her suddenly, a funny expression crossing his face.  "How get here?"

Faye's brow wrinkled; his language skills had suffered since he couldn't remember how to express his thoughts like before.  "We brought you here.  After Jet brought you back to the ship and cleaned you up, you kept lapsing into unconsciousness so he thought it would be best if we took you to a hospital.  Right before we got you here, you wouldn't wake back up.  The doctor's said that it didn't look as bad as it could have but…  I guess no one expected this, that's all I can say."

"Who 'Jet'?" Spike asked, his curiosity shining through his expression.

Faye laughed mirthlessly, "He's a friend too.  He cooks for us and everything."

Spike stared at her without a reply, an unreadable expression on his face before going back to watching the screen. 

Faye sighed, and in a deadpan voice commented "Alright.  This should be fun."

**Two weeks later**

Faye pushed Spike's wheelchair down the nearly deserted hallway, every now and then stopping suddenly to surprise its occupant.  Spike predictably flew forward slightly each time, his reflexes a mess.

"Aren't you glad you're going home today?" Faye asked.

Spike nodded, he couldn't remember anyone else that Faye said they were going to meet.  She'd shown him their photographs enough times that he somewhat remembered their faces, but he had a distinct feeling that his mind had distorted the memory.

Truth be told, he was scared to death, but he didn't want Faye to know that, feeling that as long as she was there, he wouldn't have to be.  Looking up at her he studied her face, something he liked to do when he thought she wasn't paying attention.  He liked her hair, and the greenness of her eyes, and the way her face was shaped.  He thought she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever remembered seeing.

During the past few weeks, she'd spent a lot of time trying to remind him of what he'd lost.  Telling him all sorts of funny stories, and sometimes not-so-funny stories, reacquainting him with what he'd missed.  He'd looked forward to her daily visits even more than the chocolate pudding they served at lunchtime, and almost as much as the green Jello at dinner.  Sometimes they'd go for walks around the hospital, and she pushed him in his chair.  Other's she'd bring him something from his room on the Bebop that might be familiar to him.  Now all of that came down to this day, when he was finally well enough to go home.

After they reached the nurse's desk and she signed him out, they headed down the elevator and out to Faye's ship.  As Faye helped him into his seat and warned him about being crowded he turned to her and asked, "Faye, why you only see me?"

"They've been busy Spike, chasing bounties.  Besides, maybe they didn't want to see you all banged up like this."

"Oh." Spike answered quietly. 

"You ready to go home Spike?" Faye asked with a smile.

Spike returned the gesture, "Yesh."

 With that the ship took off in the direction of the Bebop.  Spike was finally coming back home.


End file.
